Had a few quiet days – Colin re-planted the pansy that Chairman Meow had dug out of the top flower box while we were gone in Siena. Colin now feeds Meow when he’s here, and apparently Meow wasn’t pleased that we’d gone away for a day. It’s kind of funny because it seems that Meow’s human – Angelo next door – is actually home right now so should also be feeding him.

One afternoon there was a fierce wind-storm for about an hour, then another even more fierce in the middle of the night – but the morning dawned clear and sunny. Walked down to the Other Bar around noon each day for a cappuccino, read a bit, watched highlights of Paris-Nice.

Little Mia, a beautiful beagle puppy that some neighbours got recently, follows us from time to time, and is constantly jumping at Mo wanting to play. She’s just a bit too exuberant after a while, and desperately needs some training. We’re worried that she wanders around the whole village alone and doesn’t seem to be supervised at all.

Some of the village cats are still around from last year, but we haven’t seen the cream-coloured ones with the grey/brown ears yet.

The weather has generally been pretty nice – warm enough when in the sun, but definitely need a sweater or light jacket if in the shade. One afternoon rain had been forecast for around 4 in the afternoon, but didn’t arrive until about 7 – when it did come it just pounded down.

At one point we noticed that the streetlights were all out – lightening must have hit something. Mo felt the need to bark at the first few thunderclaps, but eventually settled down.

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